5 Steps to Embrace Lifestyle Deflation Without Deprivation
.5 Steps to Embrace Lifestyle Deflation Without Deprivation
The Minimal Investor
Written by Adam on March 28, 2021.
Are you one of the millions of Americans who are currently rethinking their finances? If you want to reset and reevaluate not only your money but what your life will be after the pandemic, there are ways to bring it all into balance without feeling deprived.
Let me know if this sounds familiar. When you were younger, you had less money than you have now. You worked hard, and every dollar you earned was a new opportunity to support yourself, buy something fun or have an exciting experience.
As you progressed in your career, perhaps you upgraded different parts of your life. You worked hard, and every dollar you earned was a new opportunity to support yourself, buy something fun, or have exciting experiences with new people. As you made more money, you probably bought more things. Maybe you upgraded from an apartment to a house. Or from an inexpensive area to the center of a city. Or from a cheap used car to buying your dream car.
Living Below Your Means: The First Step to Wealth
.Living Below Your Means: The First Step to Wealth
Written March 4, 2021 by One Frugal Girl
Ask a group of money nerds the best way to get rich, and you’ll likely receive a handful of juicy tips for building your nest egg. While new advice pops up on occasion, most financial gurus stick to a list of tried and true favorites. Living below your means is one such piece of financial advice.
What does it mean to live below your means, and can it really lead to greater wealth?
Living below your means is often defined as paying for all of your bills in full each month. Simply put, you spend less than you earn and never purchase more than you can afford. You can use credit cards to pay for your expenses, but you never need to carry a balance on them.
Get Rich Versus Stay Rich
.Get Rich Versus Stay Rich
Posted March 10, 2021 by blair
I don’t help people get rich, I help them stay rich. My job as a wealth manager is to help clients hold on to their wealth and to preserve and grow it to keep pace with inflation. My number one priority is to ensure that money is there to meet their goals, when they are ready to spend it. There are a lot of ways to get rich. The most reliable way is to spend less than you earn and invest the rest. Repeat consistently for four to five decades, and you are likely to secure a decent retirement. One of my favorite things about being an advisor is hearing the variety of ways people accumulated wealth.
I’ve seen and heard it all. Stock-based compensation is a common route, as is building a successful, privately-owned business. Then there are high earning professions such as medicine and law. In some cases, I work with the second or third generation of a family. One of my colleagues spoke to a true Tesla millionaire recently. They really do exist, and a few actually took some gains off the table.
Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager Urges Diversification Out Of The Dollar
.Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager Urges Diversification Out Of The Dollar
Notes From The Field By Simon Black
March 29, 2021 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile
Ray Dalio is the founder of one of the largest investment firms in the world and has amassed a personal fortune nearing $20 billion from his business and investment acumen. In short, he understands money and finance in a way that most people never will. And it’s for this reason that his latest insights are so noteworthy.
In a recent, self-published article entitled “Why in the World Would You Own Bonds When. . .”, Dalio makes some blunt assertions about the alarming US national debt, the decline of the dollar, and other negative trends in the Land of the Free.
Time is Money, but Money Can’t Buy Time
.Time is Money, but Money Can’t Buy Time
The Physician Philospher
“This broken water heater is going to set us back. If it costs $2,000 to replace, that’s an extra two weeks of payments towards our student loans.” Please, tell me I am not the only one who thinks like this? For a while, my monetary mindset revolved around our biggest financial goal: Paying off our refinanced student loans. Time is money, and I didn’t have the time for costs that slowed our financial progress down.
It is important to realize, though, that money is a means to an end. It is not the end itself. This is a common concept that many struggle with in medicine, particularly if you work in private practice or you work in a shift work specialty.
Time is Money
The first person to use the phrase “Time is Money” was Benjamin Franklin in his book “Advice to a Young Tradesman, Written by an Old One”.
Gold Vs. The Stock Market
.Gold Vs. The Stock Market
Notes From The Field By Simon Black
March 16, 2021 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile
More than 3,000 years ago in the early 12th century BC, Greco-Roman legend tells us of a mythical pair of monsters located in the Strait of Messina in southern Italy. The monsters were named Scylla and Charybdis. And both Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid describe the terror of sailors who came into contact with them.
Scylla was on one side of the Strait, and Charybdis on the other. But because the Strait is so narrow, it was impossible for sailors to avoid both of the monsters, essentially forcing the captain to choose between the lesser of two evils. In Homer’s narrative, for example, Odysseus is advised that the whirlpools of Charybdis could sink his entire ship, while Scylla might only kill a handful of his sailors.
Being Rich – What Would Change in Life?
.Being Rich – What Would Change in Life?
By Jim @ Route To Retire / March 2, 2021
Ah, the allure of tons of money… who hasn’t had the dream of being rich?!
The things you could afford, the places you could go, the luxurious good times you could have. It’s fun to imagine all the cool things you could do with boatloads of money.
Wait a minute, Jim – aren’t you already rich? You retired a couple of years ago at 43 for Pete’s sake!
We’re definitely in a position that I’m more than elated for – we’re financially independent. That’s a blessing more than we could ever ask for in life.
But we’re far from rich. I talked about this in my post, Being a FIRE Millionaire Doesn’t Mean You’re Rich. Essentially, through the 4% rule, we have a “fixed income” of roughly $50,000/year we can spend while still sustaining our portfolio for the long haul. This, of course, assumes neither one of us ever works again, but it’s still an important number to understand.
What Are The 7 Steps In The Financial Planning Process?
.What Are The 7 Steps In The Financial Planning Process?
The financial planning process is important to understand as it helps you create efficient action items to better your money. Financial Planning ProcessThis series of steps will be your go-to strategy that outlines how to budget, where to invest, and what other assets will help you achieve your financial goals.
Oftentimes you might be unsure of where to start with a plan due to a lack of know-how and might want to work with an expert. While you certainly can work with a financial planner, you absolutely can improve your finances on your own too. If you’re interested in DIY finance, then you can follow the basic seven steps in the financial planning process below.
The 5 Worst Things People Are Doing With Stimulus Checks
.The 5 Worst Things People Are Doing With Stimulus Checks, Suze Orman Says
Sigrid Forberg Mon, March 22, 2021
More than 90 million American households have now received their third stimulus checks. The $1,400 checks, which are part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief bill, are expected to help recipients cover immediate household expenses and pay down debt. And given that many qualifying households are receiving additional checks for dependents — that is, children and non-working adults – a large number of Americans are seeing a bigger one-time influx of cash than they’ve ever seen before.
And Suze Orman, one of America's most prominent personal finance experts, has some strong opinions about how you should not spend your windfall. Read on to find out where she thinks some people may go wrong — and what you can do instead.
Half a Stimulus Check? Some Confused After Receiving Only Part
.Half a stimulus check? Some Confused After Receiving Only Part of $1,400 Payment
Summer Lin Mon, March 22, 2021
The IRS said last week that it has already sent out around 90 million stimulus checks under the American Rescue Plan passed earlier this month — but some people have reported only getting partial payments. “It was a pretty big shock when we thought we were going to receive $4,200 and only got $2,100,” Joshua Bair of Kentucky told King5.
Who qualifies for a stimulus check?
Individuals making under $75,000 and couples making under $150,000 qualify for the full $1,400 payment, plus $1,400 per child or adult dependent. The payments phase out for individuals earning more than $75,000 a year and joint filers earning more than $150,000 a year, with payments capping out at annual incomes of $80,000 and $160,000, respectively.
11 Most Unanticipated Disadvantages of Becoming Wealthy
.11 Most Unanticipated Disadvantages of Becoming Wealthy
Physicians on FIRE
I’m sure you’re well acquainted with the advantages of becoming wealthy. You can buy what you want, travel in luxury, and when your wealth makes you financially independent, work becomes optional. Have you spent any time considering the disadvantages of becoming wealthy? Perhaps you’ve read the stories of lottery winners who wish they had never played the game. Sudden wealth can, in some instances, create more problems than it solves.
Mark LaForet, the author of today’s Friday Feature, isn’t opposed to building wealth. In fact, you could say he’s all LaForet, but that would be a terrible pun. Mark is also aware that there are some cons to pair with the pros of getting rich, and he highlights 11 of them below.